Judge (band)
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Judge was a New York City hardcore band, formed in 1987 by Youth Of Today guitarist John "Porcell" Porcelly and former Death Before Dishonor/Youth Of Today drummer Mike "Judge" Ferraro. Their first release was a 7" EP on Porcelly's label Schism (which he ran along with Side By Side/Gorilla Biscuits guitar-player Alex Brown) entitled New York Crew. The record featured 5 songs, one of which was a cover of "Warriors" by the British oi!/punk band Blitz. On this recording, the band was merely a two-piece, featuring Porcelly on bass and guitar, and Ferraro on vocals and drums. But with the addition of bass-player Jimmy Yu (of Mike's former band Death Before Dishonor, which eventually evolved into Supertouch) and drummer "Lukey" Luke Abbey (Warzone/Gorilla Biscuits), they got together a fully-functional live line-up.
The band received lots of criticism due to their militant straight edge lyrics, especially from fanzines like San Fransisco's Maximum Rock'N'Roll. The militant lyrics were a conscious move on the band's part, as they were sick of seeing bands like Youth Of Today, who in reality had a very positive message, get slagged for being too militant. So they decided to give the nay-sayers exactly what they wanted - the most militant straight edge band imaginable. And with lyrics (http://geocities.com/sidexbyxside/words/judge/new_york_crew.txt) like "those drugs are gonna kill you, if i don't get you first", they certainly proved provocavtive to those negative to the straight edge movement.
Judge was not just heavy in message, the music had very metal-influenced riffing, but the music remained close to its hardcore roots, without going all out metal, such as bands like Agnostic Front and DRI.
With a new line-up of Sammy Siegler (Side By Side/Youth Of Today/Project X/etc.) on drums and Matt Pincus on bass, the band proceeded to record their full-length LP Bringin' It Down for Revelation Records at Chung King Studios in New York City. The recording was finished, but the band were so unhappy with the result that they decided to scrap it and re-record it at Don Fury's infamous NYC studio, where many early hardcore records were recorded. Revelation did however put out a limited pressing of the original recording, fittingly titled Chung King Can Suck It. It was given to people who had pre-ordered the record, and with only 110 copies pressed (all on white vinyl), it is one of the most sought-after hardcore records in existence, going for as much as $1500+ USD on online auction sites like eBay.
Eventually, Bringin' It Down was released in 1989, and is considered to this day by many to be one of the best hardcore records if its time.
Judge continued touring up until 1991, and even released another 7" EP, featuring "The Storm" and "Forget This Time" (the CD-version also contains a cover-version of "When The Levee Breaks", originally by Led Zeppelin).
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Careers after Judge
John Porcelly went on to tour and record with Hare Krishna hardcore band Shelter (featuring Ray Cappo of Youth Of Today, as well as a revolving line-up of various other more and less well-known hardcore musicians, Tom Capone of Bold/Quicksand and Vic DiCara of Beyond/Inside Out/108, to name a few). He is currently working on the band Never Surrender, the record label Fight Fire With Fire (http://www.fightfirehq.com) and the website TrueTillDeath.com (http://www.truetilldeath.com).
Mike Ferraro continued in the band Mike Judge & Old Smoke, a band playing Neil Young-inspired acoustic music. They released a 10" on Revelation Records in 1993.
Sammy Siegler played in several late 80's/early 90's hardcore bands, either regularily or as a replacement. In the mid-late 90's he recorded and toured with the band Civ, featuring Anthony "Civ" Civarelli and Arthur Smilios of Gorilla Biscuits. He has also appeared in Shelter, and major label rock band Rival Schools, featuring Walter Schreifels (also of Gorilla Biscuits, as well as Quicksand and several other bands).
Matt Pincus currently runs the NYC-based record label Some Records (http://www.some.com), which has released records from bands like Hot Water Music, Errortype 11 and Beyond.
Discography
Official releases
- New York Crew 7" EP (Schism Records (SKIZ-2) (1988) / Revelation Records (REV 14)) (1989)
- 3000 copies in 3 pressings on Schism.
- Later re-pressed on revelation, the 1st press was 4000 black and 1000 blue vinyl. It has later been repressed in the thousands.
- Chung King Can Suck It LP (Revelation Records (REV -1))
- One-time press of 110 on white vinyl.
- Bringin' It Down LP (Revelation Records (REV 15)) (1989)
- 1st press: 5458 black vinyl, 712 green vinyl, purple labels.
- 2nd press: black vinyl, red labels.
- 3rd press (and beyond): black vinyl, maroon labels.
- Final press (2001): 333 orange vinyl.
- Storm II' 7" EP (Revelation Records (REV 20)) (1990)
- 4000 black vinyl, 1000 gold vinyl.
Bootlegs
- Revelation Can Suck It 10" (Revoltation Records) (1992)
- Contains the recording that appears on the limited 'Chung King Can Suck It' LP, but on a 10" format, including one track that does not appear on the Bringin' It Down LP ('No Apologies').
- No Apologies: The Chung King Sessions LP (Lost & Found Records (LF033)) (1992)
- Another bootleg of the Chung King... LP. Also has 4 additional bonus tracks.
- Vivo En WNYU 7"
- Contains part of the band's 1988 appearance on the 'Crucial Chaos' radio-show on NYC's WNYU radio station.
- 500 black vinyl, 50 red vinyl, xeroxed sleeve.